Baffleboard ball game apparatus



1966 K. M. HOLLAND BAFFLEBOARD BALL GAME APPARATUS Filed March 22, 196522 Fig.3

INVENTOR. KELLEY M. HOLLAND United States Patent 3,231,277 BAFFLEBOARDBALL GAME APPARATUS Kelley M. Holland, 4649 Biona Drive, San Diego,Calif. Filed Mar. 22, 1965, Ser. No. 441,639 6 Claims. (Cl. 273-101)This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Serial No.146,833, filed October 23, 1961, and now abandoned.

This invention relates to apparatus for a new game played with a ball ofextremely light weight, preferably hollow, and quite resilient and theapparatus developed to exploit the peculiar characteristics of such aball when used with ball-propelling guns in a pin-ball type of gameapparatus.

The principal object of this invention is to provide apparatus for agame which demands the exercise of great skill and muscularco-ordination, and to make it possible for opposing players to add tothe excitement of the game by cross fire and interference with the ballsprojected by opposing players.

It is another object of the invention to provide a game apparatus whichcan be easily collapsed into a small space to facilitate storage andtransportation of the game apparatus.

It is another object of this invention to provide a unique gableconstruction which combines the functions of a top baffle for theprojected balls as well as a canopy, the latter being thought of asfunctioning merely as a cover to prevent interference with the flight ofthe balls and to prevent lateral escape of the balls.

Another object of this invention is to provide apparatus which isideally suited for use by as many as four players, there being a singletarget aperture in a centrally disposed baflle board, each of theplayers being able to interfere with the trafiic through said targetaperture of the balls fired by opposing players, provision being madefor the very rapid return of the balls which do not pass through thetarget aperture, thus heightening the excitement of the game andenabling fast game action.

Another object of the invention, ancillary to the preceding objects, isto provide game apparatus of this character wherein ball-propelling gunsare located at all four corners of the cabinet, thus permitting use byfour players even though the space required by the apparatus as such isquite limited.

The last object to be mentioned is to provide game apparatusparticularly suitable for use in game rooms, private playrooms and thelike, which is inexpensive to manufacture, completely safe whileintensely interesting to use and which is quite durable and rugged.Other objects will appear as this description proceeds.

Drawings A preferred embodiment of my invention is described in detailin the following specification and is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view of the game apparatus, in perspective;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary top plane view of the game apparatus; and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken substantially onthe line 3-3 of FIGURE 2, this figure being on an enlarged scale, thebetter to show the detailed construction of the various parts.

Detailed description of the invention Referring now to the drawing indetail and to the parts and portions thereof by reference numerals, thesame reference numerals being used to designate the identical or similarparts and portions throughout the various figures, the apparatusincludes a cabinet, generally indicated 3,231,277 Patented Jan. 25, 1966by the numeral 10 having vertical side walls 12 and vertical end walls14. The bottom of the cabinet is constituted by board or panel elementswhich function as play ing surfaces 16, as well as structural elementsof the cabinet. It will be noted that the cabinet has a reduced verticaldimension at its central part and a greater vertical height at each endwall 14, and this has been found to improve the stability of the cabinetwhen placed on surfaces which are not perfectly flat, and to tend tokeep the cabinet from shifting unduly when the ball-propelling guns areoperated overzealously in the excitement of the game, the playingsurfaces 16 being inclined.

Disposed centrally in the cabinet is a vertical bafile board 18 which isprimarily supported by lateral guide rails 20 fixed in spaced relationon the inner surfaces of the side Walls 12 and engaging the lowerlateral edges of the baffle board 18. The lower longitudinal edge of thebaffle board rests upon the bottom of the cabinet, that is, the junctureof the playing surfaces 16. The baflle board is provided with a targetaperture 24, preferably disposed centrally of the upper portion of thebafile board, and a plurality of balls, one of which is indicated at 26,are disposed on each of the playing surfaces. The character of theseballs is extremely critical. They can be most easily described as beingPing-pong balls, that is, they must be of extremely light weight andhighly resilient, all such balls will probably be hollow and will alsoprobably be constructed of plastic. The character of the balls isdeterminant to a very great degree the general character of the gameplayed with this apparatus and the use of Ping-pong balls is proposed asa novel and very important feature of this invention.

Ball propelling guns, generally indicated by the numeral 28, areprovided at each end of the cabinet, preferably four in number anddisposed at each corner of the cabinet, that is, at each end of each endwall 14. The ball propelling guns are identical and only one will bedescribed: each gun includes a plunger 30 terminating in a handle orknob 32 and biased toward the baffle board 18 by a spring 34, the springand a portion of the plunger being housed in a cylindrical bore 36 of ablock 38. Each block 38 is pivoted, as at 40, upon a bracket plate 42which is fixed to the corresponding end plate 14 and extends inwardly ofthe cabinet above the ball-propelling gun. Each bracket plate isprovided with a finger access hole 43 to enable the player to hold thegun after prepositioning the same by swinging action applied to theplunger knob 32. A slot 44 is provided in the adjacent portion of theend wall 14 to accommodate an intermediate portion of the plunger 30.

A plurality of lofting elements 46 are secured upon the playing surfaces16, these lofting elements being in the general planes through saidtarget aperture and the corresponding gun. In the illustrated embodimentfour such lofting elements are shown but it will be understood that thelofting elements on each playing surface may be combined into one largerlofting element extending a greater distance transversely of the playingsurface, one very important structural feature being retained in anycase, namely, that the portion or portions of the lofting element orelements disposed toward the baffle board must be tapered toward saidbaffle board so that the balls returned therefrom will not be arrestedby the lofting element, even though they may be deflected thereby inrolling back toward the guns. The edges 48 disposed toward the guns ofthe lofting elements are normal to the playing surface, as best shown inFIGURE 3, and the angle thereof is a factor largely determinant of thepath of the ball upwardly toward the target aperture 24, this path beingindicated graphically in FIGURES 1 and 3 by the arrows 50. That the ballmust be a table tennis ball or the equivalent has already been.mentioned and certain dimensions are also critical, to wit, the heightof the edge 48 to operate efficiently with such a table tennis ball mustbe approximately one-eighth inch, or at least within the range of threethirty-seconds to five thirty-seconds of one inch in height, and theedge 48 should be seven inches with a possible tolerance of onlyone-quarter inch if the ball is to transverse the target aperture 26 inhorizontal flight.

Ball return ramps 52 are provided on each side of the baffle plate 18,the lower edges of these ramps being engaged by stop blocks 54, disposedlaterally of the plane surfaces 16. The upper edges 56 of the ramps 52engage intermediate portions of the baflle board 18, greatly aiding instabilizing the baflie board, it being recalled that the baflle board isremovably and somewhat loosely inserted between the lateral guide rails20.

A gable 58 of unique structure is functionally a com bined top baffleand canopy. The gable is comprised primarily of flexible sheet material60 and as a top baffle it deflects balls which are made to bounce extrahigh upon striking the lofting elements 46, a skillful player being ablethus to use the gable as a top baflie to deflect a ball through thetarget aperture 24. As a canopy the gable 58 covers the whole centralportion of the cabinet and the side flaps 61 of the gable prevent theballs from escaping laterally of the cabinet during play. Each end ofthe gable has a channel 62 constructed in the sheet material 60 thereofto accept a pair of dowels 64 of such a length as to extend onto theupper edges of each of the side walls 12. This arrangement of the dowelsholds the brackets 66 in the positions shown clearly in FIG- URES 1 and3, with the sheet material 60 stretched over the top of the baffle board18 and the side flaps 61 tautened into vertical position, it beingunderstood that these side flaps are of triangular form. The brackets 66are secured to the inner surfaces of the side walls 12 by pivots 68,which may take the form of simple headed screws, and the brackets areshown in operative positions in FIGURES 1 and 3 and one of thesebrackets is shown in inoperative or retracted position in chain lines inFIGURE 3. It is thought that this simple showing of the positioning ofthe bracket 66 in inoperative position in FIGURE 3 will indicate how theentire gable is removed or collapsed for storage or transportation ofthe apparatus, the dowels simply being manipulated axially thereof,being reasonably loosely held in the corresponding channels 64, torelease the ends of the dowels from the brackets 66, thus permitting theentire canopy to be removed and collapsed when desired. It will also benoted that the baffle board 18 is easily removed by simply raising thesame out of the sockets defined by the lateral guide rails 20, and theball return ramps 52 are simply then lifted out and stored in the bodyportion of the cabinet along with the folded or collapsed gable.

The operation of the invention has already been rather completelydivulged by the foregoing description of the apparatus and it remainsonly necessary to point out that the particular game rules to beemployed can be varied considerably, as can the number of players, inthe oper ation of this invention.

It is understood that minor variation from the form of the inventiondisclosed herein may be made without departure from the spirit and scopeof the invention, and that the specification and drawing are to beconsidered as merely illustrative rather than limiting.

I claim:

1. Game apparatus comprising:

a rigid cabinet including upstanding, peripherally disposed side and endwalls and a plurality of playing surfaces;

a vertical baffle board extending across said cabinet and separatingsaid playing surfaces, said playing surfaces being inclined. downwardlyfrom said baflle board toward each of said end walls, and said bafileboard having a target aperture therein;

ball propelling guns mounted in said cabinet and manually operable fromwithout said end walls;

a plurality of extremely light weight, hollow and resilient balls onsaid playing surfaces;

a plurality of lofting elements, mounted on said playing surfaces, anequal number of said lofting elements being on each side of said baflleboard;

ball returning ramps fixed to said playing surfaces immediately adjacentto each side of said baffle board;

a gable comprising a top baffle and a canopy covering a major centralportion of said playing surfaces, said baffle board supporting saidgable at its center;

and mounting means to mount said gable on said cabinet forcollapsibility of said gable when said baflie board is removed.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said ball returning ramp areplate-like and extend across the cabinet at the lower edge of saidbaffle board and present upper surfaces inclined downwardly toward saidguns, the upper edges of said ramps engaging said baflle board andstabilizing said baffle board.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said gable has a supportingdowel at each end thereof;

and means terminally and releasibly securing said dowels to said sidewalls.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein the ends of said gable arespaced inwardly from said end Walls d e-' fining an open space at eachend of the cabinet thus providing access to said guns and returnedballs.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said guns are disposedadjacent each end of each end wall enabling cross-fire ball propulsiontoward said target aperture, said lofting elements being disposedgenerally in planes through said target aperture and said guns.

6. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein each of said lofting elementsis spaced seven inches from said baffle board, measured in the directionof the corresponding playing surface, and said lofting elements haveedges against which the balls are projected, said edges beingapproximately one-eighth inch in height above the corresponding playingsurface.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,279,465 9/1918Small 273- 1,942,476 1/1934 Harris 273-419 2,688,484 9/1954 Garber 27395X 2,850,283 9/1958 Lemelson 273--95 3,087,731 4/1963 Waite 273-119FOREIGN PATENTS 544,393 4/ 1942 Great Britain.

DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner.

M. R. PAGE, Assistant Examiner.

1. GAME APPARATUS COMPRISING: A RIGID CABINET INCLUDING UPSTANDING,PERIPHERALLY DISPOSED SIDE AND END WALLS AND A PLURALITY OF PLAYINGSURFACES; A VERTICAL BAFFLE BOARD EXTENDING ACROSS SAID CABINET ANDSEPARATING SAID PLAYING SURFACES, SAID PLAYING SURFACES BEING INCLINEDDOWNWARDLY FROM SAID BAFFLE BOARD TOWARD EACH OF SAID END WALLS, ANDSAID BAFFLE BOARD HAVING A TARGET APERTURE THEREIN; BALL PROPELLING GUNSMOUNTED IN SAID CABINET AND MANUALLY OPERABLE FROM WITHOUT SAID ENDWALLS; A PLURALITY OF EXTREMELY LIGHT WEIGHT, HOLLOW AND RESILIENT BALLSON SAID PLAYING SURFACES; A PLURALITY OF LOFTING ELEMENTS, MOUNTED ONSAID PLAYING SURFACES, AN EQUAL NUMBER OF SAID LOFTING ELEMENTS BEING ONEACH SIDE OF SAID BAFFLE BOARD; BALL RETURNING RAMPS FIXED TO SAIDPLAYING SURFACES IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT TO EACH SIDE OF SAID BAFFLE BOARD;A GABLE COMPRISING A TOP BAFFLE AND A CANOPY COVERING A MAJOR CENTRALPORTION OF SAID PLAYING SURFACES, AND BAFLE BOARD SUPPORTING SAID GABLEAT ITS CENTER; AND MOUNTING MEANS TO MOUNT SAID GABLE ON SAID CABINETFOR COLLAPSIBILITY OF SAID GABLE WHEN SAID BAFFLE BOARD IS REMOVED,